ASEA embraces ICT

The 2024 African Securities Exchange Association (ASEA) hosted by the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) this past week in Tlokweng indicated that African Stock Exchanges are on right track with regards to liquidity in their markets. The 2024 annual conference officiated by the vice president and Minister of Finance, Ndaba Gaolathe was held under the theme “Fostering Transformation in Capital Markets through Innovation’’. 

Experts at the conference buttressed the important need to embrace technology by African Stock Exchanges as that would enable them to be competitive and attractive to investors. 

The President of ASEA Pierre Celestin Rwabukumba said the African markets and economies should not find themselves lagging behind in adoption of the Artificial Intelligence which is key for transformation. 

Rwabukumba said to drive transformative change, Africa’s markets must focus on enhancing regulatory environments, advancing standards and integrating new technologies to foster robust growth capacity. 

To that end, he said the 2024 ASEA conference offers an opportunity for the African stock exchanges to assess achievements, collectively tackle emerging challenges and set strategic goals for the years ahead. 

For her part, Chairperson of BSE Board Neo Mooki said ASEA continues to be strategic; offering a lot of support to the regional transformation through the capital markets, adding that the BSE is on track as well. 

Mooki said BSE adopted cutting edge innovation technology and would continue to explore more going forward. 

She added that BSE will continue to be an important member of ASEA and collaborate with other stock exchanges in the region as transformation needs capital markets to benchmark from each other for purposes of growth. 

The BSE was hosting the conference for the second time. It hosted the first one in 2019 in Kasane. 

AfCFTA Disruption 

Giving the opening remarks Gaolathe noted that the new Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) Government is committed to diversifying the economy through tapping into the capital markets and view the BSE as a key player in achieving that. 

He said Botswana and Africa are at a pivotal moment with population projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050 the world’s largest working cohort and with the promise of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa is poised for economic renaissance. 

The AfCFTA as a market boasts of 1.4 billion people across the African continent. “The AfCFTA provide great opportunity for the African capital markets to expand by creating a large market, economies of scale, increased competitiveness and more opportunities to invest in African markets and firms,” he said. 

But most importantly, Gaolathe said the AfCFTA presents opportunities for African markets to redefine and surpass the global standards by blending technological advancements and uniquely African solutions encompassing of mobile money and ecommerce ecosystems